Boehner: We will ‘protect women;’ but how?

House Speaker John Boehner wants to “protect women,” but talked in legislative jargon Thursday about how to do it.

Boehner, at his weekly news conference, was asked about the updated Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) passed by a big bipartisan majority in the Senate earlier this week. He hinted — with no specifics — that the Republican-run House might act on the anti-violence legislation, which it let die in the last Congress.

House Speaker John Boehner and Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, R-Washington. They are key players in whether Congress will renew the Violence Against Women Act.

“No decision has been made about . . . whether we take up the Senate bill or our own version of the bill,” Boehner said at his weekly news conference.

The Senate passed by a 78-22 vote, with 23 of the upper chamber’s 45 Republicans voting for it. The bill, renewal of a law originally passed in 1994, gives protection to three constituencies usually given short shrift by congressional Republicans — Native American women, undocumented immigrants, and Native American women who suffer domestic violence on reservations.

Washington lawmakers are involved in this battle. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a member of the Senate Democratic leadership, says the fate of anti-violence legislation is “in the hands” of the House Republican leadership. Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, R-Wash., is chairman of the House Republican Caucus.

Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., was one of 17 relatively moderate Republican House members who sent a letter to Boehner, urging that Congress’ lower chamber take up the anti-violence legislation and offering praise for the Senate’s expanded provisions.

“We have the votes in the House to pass,” Murray said in an interview legislation, if Republican leaders allow a floor vote on the legislation.

Boehner was being cagey on Thursday. “Our leadership is continuing to work with the committee of jurisdiction, looking at finding ways to deal with this legislation. We’re fully committed to doing everything we can to protect women in our society, and I expect the House will act in a timely fashion in some way.”

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has apparently talked about VAWA with Vice President Joe Biden. Biden was an original Senate sponsor of the anti-violence legislation in 1994.

Last year, McMorris-Rodgers fronted for a weak House bill that carried none of the Senate’s expanded protections. She is rumored, as a woman in leadership, to be a possible sponsor if the House leadership introduces its “own version of the bill.”